Future Image for Production Scheduling and Control

It’s a fact—though not widely known—that 99% of manufacturing companies in Europe still schedule their production manually, either using Excel or even on paper. This is despite Industry 4.0, Smart Factory, and Digital Factory concepts having been promoted for over a decade. Many companies, however, have had costly and disappointing experiences with failed implementations of production scheduling systems, including basic Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions or APS modules within MES or ERP systems. Why is this happening?

1. They have not defined a “future image”—a clear vision of the ideal state of their production and scheduling.
2. Without a well-defined “future image”, they lack the basis to identify the APS system functions needed to reach this ideal state.
3. IT departments often take the lead on these projects, yet they generally lack in-depth knowledge of production scheduling and control, including product characteristics, process rules and constraints, and scheduling restrictions. They base decisions solely on IT-perspectives.

A “future image” of High-Level Lean Production defines the following requirements for a production scheduling and control system:

1. 100% Mapping of Production Reality: The scheduling software fully maps all product characteristics and process rules and constraints to create a realistic and feasible schedule for every department and resource.
2. Consistent and Realistic Scheduling: Scheduling is fully integrated, optimized, and feasible in practice. It accounts for the availability and workload of all main and sub resources across the entire value chain.
3. Process Synchronization: Optimized sequencing for each resource ensures a high level of process synchronization across parallel, merging, and branching processes. Combined with minimized stagnation between processes, this shortens lead times to the absolute minimum.
4. Supply Chain Integration: Scheduling is linked to material availability, purchase orders, and inventory fluctuations, as well as external production resources if applicable. The system detects and highlights potential material shortages, inventory bottlenecks, and capacity constraints weeks or months in advance, allowing proactive action.
5. Optimization: The scheduling system optimizes the timing and sequencing of production orders to ensure high on-time delivery rates while minimizing lead times and inventory levels. It also maximizes resource productivity by reducing machine setup times through product grouping and optimizing that sequencing. Sequencing is optimized based on product characteristics such as color, temperature, or dimensions. Additionally, a proper MRP run with finite capacity scheduling ensures just-in-time material procurement, preventing shortages or excessive inventory.
6. Simulation Capabilities: In real-world production, conditions frequently change due to unexpected events such as rush orders, delayed material deliveries, or machine breakdowns. The scheduling system simulates all orders—sales forecasts, confirmed orders, call-off orders, etc.—across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons and updates them daily to generate an optimal schedule, factoring in on-time delivery, costs, lead times, and inventory levels.
7. Predictive KPI: The scheduling system provides comprehensive predictive KPI for individual simulations, including on-time delivery, delays, early completions, resource productivity, manufacturing costs, workstation utilization and availability, as well as the status of individual resources (employees, test equipment, fixtures, etc.), wait times, and material inventory by item, customer, and period.
8. Speed and Flexibility: A factory is a dynamic environment—new orders, priority changes, or disruptions like machine failures and material delays occur constantly. A Scheduling simulation must not take hours or overnight to run. It needs to be completed within seconds or minutes. When priorities change or urgent orders arise, the schedule must be adjusted immediately, making the dynamic impact on the entire schedule instantly visible.
9. Monitoring: The system transparently visualizes and continuously tracks the status of ongoing and future orders, comparing them to the schedule—almost in real time.
10. Standardization: The scheduling system establishes high-level standardization of scheduling processes and workflows, making them reproducible and independent of individual employees.
11. White-Box System: The scheduling tool applies a rule-based White-Box approach, making inputs, parameter settings, scheduling logic, and results fully transparent and traceable. Planners immediately see what adjustments will improve business outcomes.
12. Communication: Fast and proactive communication with colleagues across all relevant departments ensures a high level of synchronization and collaboration.
13. Adjustments Without Programming: Products, processes, production systems, customers, and suppliers are constantly changing. The scheduling tool allows planners to make these adjustments themselves—without requiring external programmers.

According to lean manufacturing principles, the costliest forms of waste (Japanese: “Muda”) result from poor scheduling. This makes a highly precise production schedule essential. An advanced scheduling system serves as the backbone and brain of any manufacturing company, with all other departments structured around it, executing their tasks just-in-time to maximize overall efficiency

A production scheduling and control system should help minimize lead times and inventory levels while maximizing resource productivity and overall efficiency. The system’s value far exceeds its ROI, which is typically several times higher than the initial investment within the first year of implementation.

Before choosing an APS system, I strongly recommend first developing a “future image” for your own production and scheduling based on the criteria outlined above. The specific functional requirements of the system should then be derived directly from this “future image”, ensuring alignment with the ideal state of production.